Info needed: ARN stencils- Size and style

[Jacques Reed]

Good Day,

My apologies if this topic has been covered before but I could not find any info regarding the size and style of stencilling used to mark the ARN on Australian CMP trucks.

I found an old photo I scanned years ago showing some numbers- 53166. Wish I had traced them then before stripping the cowl a few years later.
We are all wise in hindsight!

Using proportions from an enlarged print of it I worked out they would be 3-1/2" high. The parts truck cowl numbers 45988 are only 2" high.
Were these numbers applied based on the local command supply of stencils or were they specified as to height by a central authority? If so, did the size change at some point in time?

By amazing coincidence the numbers I need are almost the same as the old photo ones. Just change the 3 to a 5 and bingo!

It has been a bit smoky to be outside due to the bushfires, and now drizzly, so I spent a few hours yesterday with Paint.net replicating the numbers I need from the scanned photo. They may not be 100% correct but better than nothing unless further info comes to hand.

Thanks in advance for any info regarding this.

Cheers,

[Tony Smith]

Most of the markings on the vehicles, such as ARN, were hand painted, professionally by a Signwriter, or Ticketwriter. Some markings are seen in photos or existing vehicles as having used a stencil, and these are kept as a basic stencil and not blocked in to form complete figures, but these are likely field or unit applied. Most Base or Factory vehicles show brushmarks from handpainting.

Seems a difficult skill to attain these days, but before the widespread availability of mechanical letterforming and printing, most commercial signage was done by hand by tradesmen (or women) variously called Ticketwriters or Signwriters. What we call "Fonts" in computerspeak today were well-practiced hand-sketched shapes that developed into an individual Ticketwriter's "signature".

Ring around some signwriting business and ask if they still have an older employee still capable of doing Ticketwriting. They appreciate the ability to "flex their muscles" again, and might be willing to take a small traditional job just for the pleasure of doing it.

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for your valuable info. I won't agonize over finding the correct style of numbers. As you said, it is as individual as the sign writer's "signature" if sign written.

On that basis, the numbers I developed are as good as anything to use. Who is to say what they looked like on the original vehicle anyway. At least I know one vehicle had that size and style of numbers. Looking at ARN 45988 it definitely appears to be stencilled but cannot say for certain for ARN 55166.

I am presently awaiting a new flatbed scanner. I found the original 35mm negative of the scanned photo so will scan the negative. Originally scanned the photo at 1200 dpi and the new one scans at 4800 dpi. Perhaps more detail will become available such as segments of a stencil if originally done by that method. If no segments, then it points to a sign writer's hand and I will follow your lead.

Cheers,

[Tony Smith]

Got some spare time? (and who doesn't?)

https://learnbrushlettering.com/about

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for the link. Think I better live until 110 to do all the things I would like to do!

Cheers,

[Mike Cecil]

Jacques,

I don't think the '45988' is the ARN, but the Unit Serial Number for the 106th Anti-tank Regiment, which later changed to the 106th Tank Attack Regiment (AIF). If you had rubbed beneath that number lower down the panel, you would probably have uncovered three parallel bars of colour, which made up the other part of the Unit Embarkation Sign. All covered in detail in my book 'Aust Army Units and Unit Serials of the Second World War', now out of print.

I think ARN 45988 was a Cab 12 3-ton CMP, not a Cab 13.

ARN specs typically specified numerals 3 inch to 3 1/2 inch high, with no part of the figures less than 1/2 inch wide, in white paint.

Your image of the '53166' truck also shows the remains of the Bridge Sign - an irregular patch of yellow paint approximating 8 inches in diameter. Hope you kept the image of that to replicate for your truck.

Regards

Mike